Question

I have an MVC 3 Application which has JSON POST’ed to an Action. Everything works fine, but I need to start logging the raw inbound JSON blobs (or whatever else is being sent). Specifically, I want to capture requests that fail before hitting the target Action so I can analyze structural and/or content issues with the data being POST’ed.

Is something like this possible in MVC 3?

Answer 1

If you want to analyze eveything, that comes to server, consider using HTTP module: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms227673.aspx.

HTTP Module is a class, that allows you to attach additional actions to existing request flow. You can attach your code to BeginRequest event to log request details, even if it won’t reach controller.

public class HelloWorldModule : IHttpModule {
    // In the Init function, register for HttpApplication 
    // events by adding your handlers.
    public void Init(HttpApplication application)
    {
        application.BeginRequest += 
            (new EventHandler(this.Application_BeginRequest));
    }

    private void Application_BeginRequest(Object source, 
         EventArgs e)
    {
        //Do something with HttpContext.Current.Request here
    } 
}